Fuel Industries, a Canadian film company, is taking steps toward excavating an old landfill in New Mexico that may or may not have millions of discarded Atari game cartridges and other gear in an effort to prove an urban legend, according to NewsMax.
Steven Spielberg's "E.T." is one of the most beloved films of the 1980's; it led to a whole generation who would be unable to say "phone home" in a normal voice ever again. "E.T." also spawned what is thought to be the absolute worst video game in history. The game was so bad that Atari was unable to sell very many of the millions that they produced after the film became a hit. The rumor was that they were all buried in a New Mexico landfill, according to Kotaku.
Fuel Industries has received a permit to excavate the site in Alamogordo, N.M., and will find out if the legendary stinker of a game has been buried in an unmarked grave since 1983.
Helping the film company will be the man who was the head of a garbage company at the time Atari filled the landfill, Joe Lewandowski. According to TechnoBuffalo, the landfill in question spans over 100 acres so it will be quite a chore to find the cartridges. Lewandowski says he knows where to look and the film company will have six months to find them.
"It was the game systems, actually the game systems themselves, it was actual cartridges and games, 'E.T.' and so on," Lewandowski told KRQE.
Alamogordo city officials are hoping that the project will give their city a little bit of free publicity.
"I hope that more people find out about Alamogordo through this opportunity we have to unearth the Atari games in the landfill," Mayor Susie Galea told KRQE.
The games were buried on September 23, 1983 so hopes are that by the thirtieth anniversary they will have been found once again, reports Kotaku.
